‘Jesus Freak’ At 20, Part Two

Beginning with the title itself, Jesus Freak, Collins said, “We got to collaborate with Larry Norman at an American Music Award one year, and we consider him as coining the term ‘Jesus Freak.’”

He continued, “As Christians, we weren’t going around and cursing and all of that stuff, but we played with a little bit with rebellion, and in a cool sort-of way, we kind of considered ourselves outcasts. We made records we liked we wanted to—like the stuff we would hear all over the radio dial—but obviously also remaining to recording content that contained life applications.”

Recalling the previous album, Free At Last, and its recording sessions, Collins said he and McKeehan were really into Eric B. and Rakim, Run DMC, and a lot of the really hot, up-and-coming hip ­hop artists of the time. “I kept pushing Toby to go in certain directions—he finally had enough and said, ‘TC man, listen… We have to make records that people want to hear and are relevant to them, not relevant to us. We have to earn the right from our audience to make whatever records we want down the road, and maybe sacrifice what we want on the front end.’”

Todd Collins, co-producer “Jesus Freak,” Gotee Records founder (with Toby McKeehan, Joey Elwood)

Toby is a genius at knowing his audience and what they like. Even at that time, he knew he wasn’t doing shows for a predominantly ‘urban’ audience, but knew that if he threw in some elements of that, it would be accepted. He is a master at not starting trends, but following them—resulting in giving the people a taste of what they want to hear.”

CLICK “3” TO ADVANCE (Song-by-song conversations begins Page 5)